SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKPEOPLE ADULT FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 'Joyous storytelling at its best. I was enthralled' SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life 'Beguiling and entertaining' PETER LALOR, Weekend Australian 'I bloody loved this - a gorgeous, heartbreaking examination of so much more than cricket' ROBBIE ARNOTT, author of Limberlost Reader Cricket Bats, one of the last traditional batmakers back in England, has a contemporary home in the Antipodes, with Allan Reader keeping the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne. When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan's eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him, selecting the best piece of willow he's harvested in years to do so. As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, leaving his equally talented sister's dreams in his wake, Allan's magical bat takes centre stage as well, awakening something in him. But can Allan's fledgling renaissance - hanging as it does on the magic of that bat - carry on after Harrow is stricken by injury and a strained personal life? With Willowman, award-winning author Inga Simpson has written a love letter to the art and beauty of cricket and a meditation on the inner lives of certain kinds of men and women, for whom it is a way of life. 'Willowman may well be the perfect Australian novel' Readings 'Not since Jasper Jones have I been so utterly spellbound by the next ball, the state of the pitch and the intricacies of scoring' KATE MILDENHALL, author of The Mother Fault 'What a wonderful book. What a read. A love story to cricket, to families, to craft and to music. Beautifully written' MICHAEL BRISSENDEN 'A fabulous novel. Inga Simpson brings all her craft and sensitivity to a story that has never been told, and now that she has done it, it feels like this was a story that was needing to be told' MALCOLM KNOX 'Delightful' JOHN DOYLE (aka Rampaging Roy Slaven) 'A six all the way: Willowman is a novel off the middle of the bat' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'These charismatic characters, through good and ill, rise memorable from the page, stroke by inspired stroke, ball by crafty ball, living vividly through cricket history' COURIER MAIL 'A book for the summer, one to throw in the kitbag to read during rain delays, or between overs in the stands, to read even if you're not a fan of the game' Canberra Times 'Heartfelt . . . Uplifting . . . Simpson explores family, priorities, the pain of making difficult choices and the knowledge that it's never too late to start over. This is an uplifting book' Books+Publishing 'Told authentically and with consummate affection' Good Reading 'Moving, gripping, authentic, so tenderly told; at once a page-turner and a life-giving meditation - Willowman is just magic' BROOKE DAVIS